Winter Strategies

I just took delivery of a new 2011 M3. Drove it home last night and the small dusting of snow we received showed me how sensitive the tires are to weather. More snow is expected This weekend so it looks like it will be staying in the garage for the next three or four months (my X3 will be my snowmobile). I am curious what strategies are employed to keep an M3 happy during this period of inactivity as even short drives may be impractical on wintery roads and driveways.

Simplest storage advice (if you're not going to drive it for a while). Run the engine for at least 30 minutes per week.

As long as the garage doesn't get below freezing too much, your should be should be fine.

Normally if the car didn't get driven for a while, you'd want to inflate the tires to high pressure to keep from flat spotting, but if you've got an M3, you likely have run flats, which don't require inflation.

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Normally if the car didn't get driven for a while, you'd want to inflate the tires to high pressure to keep from flat spotting, but if you've got an M3, you likely have run flats, which don't require inflation.

@ bcweir:

Congrats on the new M3. YOU WILL LOVE IT!

My 2011 got snowed on last night as well, but it wasn't enough to cause trouble on the way home. It is time to mount my snow wheels and tires package!

I don't know where the you live, but chances are you will have plenty of decent non-snow days when you can drive the car (on the Summer tires) a couple times a month. With a brand new battery, if you can run it once a week for better than a half hour, you will be fine.

M3 Tires: Um, No. echanda is not correct.

M3s DO NOT come with run-flats.
If you have Michelin PS2s I would not worry about flat spotting.

Can't speak for the other OEM Continental tires about flat spotting.
Just get it up to highway speed every so often and you'll be fine.

Garage is not heated, but doors are insulated so heat leaking from house to garage keeps the temperature higher so that should be helpful.

Interesting, the customer service folks at the dealer tried to insist that I had run flats, but I don't. The supplemental M3 manual actually states that the normal maintenance manual is in error when it suggests that M3s have run flats. Perhaps that is contributing to the confusion on this point.

I do LOVE this car. I have driven it all week and will try and get one more session in before Sunday's snowstorm. Already feeling sadness at the thought of leaving it in the garage for the winter after owning it for less than a week. However, I experienced a little drift coming down my driveway this morning and I couldn't live with myself if I damaged an M3 that doesn't even have 500 miles on the odometer. While I am considering getting snow tires so I can at least get it some exercise over the long winter, with the snow coming Sunday it may already be too late. I'll need snow tires to get to someone who can put on said snow tires. I live in Northwest CT, so I will run it for 30 minutes each week to keep it in shape and hope for warmer winter days to clear enough ice and snow to allow for a jaunt around the neighborhood.

If I run it for 30 minutes each week, how do I know when a battery charger is needed?

I just looked up Tirerack and they were only offering the Michelin PA2s for the 2011 M3 sedan but they are sold out. The PA3s are a much better tire. I think this is the only option as they are staggered. It does not look like you can downsize to 17s as maybe the brakes won't clear 17 inch rims. In Canada, BMW Canada offers the 18 inch Double Spoke 270M wheels with Michelin Pilot Alpin PA3 winter tires but they want $4,062.50 CAD. That is ridiculous! Gary at TireRack is an excellent resource so maybe he could provide some insight (gary@tirerack.com).

I have to decide if I want to drive this car in the winter or not. I could wait until next winter and put snows on my existing 18 inch rims or I could go this route, save the wear and tear no the existing rims and be able to get the car out of the garage more often this winter.

What you should do is drop the car by my house for the winter and let me look after it in a professional manner for you. This will include meticulous washing, waxing, vaccuming, and other required maintenance that ordinary people should not attempt. To prevent carbon and moisture build-up, flat-spotting of the tires and battery draw-down, I will drive it all the freaking time, just to help you out. Pay no mind to the fact that I live in Iowa - I will be dodging the snowflakes.

I just took delivery of a 04 m3. My first bmw! I had winter rims and tires(blizzak ws 70 - 17") put on from the gitgo. Works awesome in Minnesota. I went to high school in a Ford Granada with RADIALS! We are all truly so spoiled by all the technology in so many ways. The new m3 is outstanding but doesnt do u any good in a garage! Get tires and drive! Who u saving it for? The next owner.......

Seriously, the proper course would be to buy a set of winter tires already mounted and balanced on wheels from the Tire Rack. They can tell you whether seventeens will clear your calipers (I doubt it; they juuuuust clear on a 335i). Then winter driving becomes a matter of avoiding the idjits.

If you insist on parking it for the nonce, I have a Battery Tender, but I know Dave Flogaus, and I'd buy anything he recommends.

Satch Carlson

"The first failure of communication is the belief that any is taking place."